I’m co-founder and Managing Partner at RSR Research. I’m a lifelong retailer and have been involved in retail tech for more than 30 years both as an IT practitioner and as a tech analyst. It’s a great time to be me, as consumers drive retailers to re-create the customer experience and ultimately re-invent retail. I received my MBA in 1991 from Northeastern University, with a major in management of High Technology firms and was nominated to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. I’m active in a variety of organizations supporting human growth and development. I’m also an amateur photographer. You can follow me on Twitter @paula_rosenblum.

Although he has spent the past decade at PepsiCoPepsiCo, Mr. Cornell is not a newcomer to retail. He ran Sam’s Club (a division of Walmart), for three years, and was CEO of Michael’s Stores, a purveyor of arts and crafts, for two years.

Mr. Cornell has a big job ahead of him. Target has, by its own admission, lost its way. Its well-publicized data breach in late 2013 was the tip of a very large iceberg. The company, once nick-named “Tar-zhay” because of its pioneering “cheap chic” home goods and apparel, has devolved over the past few years. On the one hand it looks a lot more like a traditional mass merchant in the style of Walmart, but on the other, its clothing and other non-food items have become more expensive than previously. This mixed message has befuddled retail observers and shoppers alike.

Target has also been at the forefront of the “Black Friday madness” of the past few years. Opening earlier and earlier on Friday, and finally opening on Thanksgiving itself, Target promised cheap, cheap deals for those who would participate in its door buster sales. No doubt that table has already been set for the coming season, and it would likely be unreasonable to expect Mr. Cornell to change gears and strategy in time for any substantive change to the front- end of this holiday season. The merchandise has been bought, and is either on the water or already in distribution centers waiting to reach stores. But it’s important to take a hard look at the strategy as a whole.

Other challenges await him. Mr. Cornell also inherits a brand-new Information Technology leadership team. CIO Beth Jacobs resigned in the wake of the data breach, and in her place, interim CEO John Mulligan hired Bob DeRodes as CIO, and several other people to head up digital initiatives who report to Peter Glusker, another recent hire holding the title Vice President of New Business Integration and Operations. Mr. Glusker and Mr. DeRodes have no formal reporting relationship that I can discern.

Finally, Mr. Cornell will have to figure out what to do with Target’s money-losing Canadian division. The company has had a hard time finding a way to please the Canadian customer.

It’s not easy to find qualified CEOs to run giant retail operations like Target. Walmart went outside the US for its new CEO of Walmart US, Greg Foran. JC PenneyJC Penney still searches for a permanent replacement for Mike Ullman. It’s clear Mr. Cornell can run a large enterprise, which is one important aspect of the job – he’s done it before – but never with quite the same focus.

Given the critical place Target finds itself, and his own background, the most important thing Mr. Cornell can do at the start is listen.

Listen to his merchandise managers: This team was part and parcel of the ‘revolt’ reported in the media. They feel they know where the company has gone wrong product-wise. Reports abound about a study done by a major consulting company that advised Target to raise its prices on non-food items. It’s important to get real feedback from his team to understand if they were part of this decision-process and determine how to get back to the company’s core value.

Listen to the leaders of his Canadian team: While on the surface it seems Canadian and US consumers are similar in style, Target has been unable to find a sweet spot in its operations. Rather than shoehorn itself into the environment, Mr. Cornell must determine from those who are already there if Target’s typical store model will ever work in the country.

Listen to his CIO: Mr. De Rodes seems content to manage the conversion from mag-stripe based credit card process to EMV across the chain, and supervise heightened security measures in the chain. Essentially, the job has become something like a lead plumber.

Unfortunately, today’s “omni-channel” world doesn’t really lend itself to fragmented Information Technology leadership. It is imperative for retailers to have a single view of inventory, orders and customers across all selling channels. Consumers expect it, and investors will ultimately demand it.

Fragmented technology strategies that don’t cross channels are expensive. The company can’t maximize its inventory investment unless there’s a unified view of products. And customers won’t tolerate a lack of consistency across channels.

It is our very strong belief that a company needs ONE head of IT to succeed in today’s world. Is that a big job? Indeed it is. But it’s an important one. The company’s digital assets are now as important as its physical ones. They need to be under the purview of one individual.

Listen to his customers: The Target customer has become disaffected. That’s the ultimate reason sales have languished. It’s important to understand what their expectations are around prices, quality and other products besides food.

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Agreed and it is a long list indeed for Mr Cornell. I see the “listen to your merchandise managers” as the key first step to regaining the Target mojo. Without being on the same page internally, there is no hope of creating / re-capturing a unique brand identity. It’s not clear how long Mr Cornell really has to get Target back on track and to find its way.

Given the lack of real CEO candidates in the US, unless he does something of epic fail proportion, I think he’s got a year or more. This holiday season is already cast (except for the panicky end-of-season markdowns), so it’s only fair to give him one full cycle.

Surely lots of listening to do. I’d add another voice, John Pellegrene. As Frank Blake returned to The Home Depot founders to right that store/strategy, Mr Cornell ought to listen to those who created the discounter that meaningfully differentiated itself. Not from the start, but when the competition between the alumni of 1962 began to really compete. TGT distanced itself from WMT and KMART. Sure times have changed but the hunt for a treasured value hasn’t. Go back and identify when leadership veered and lost momentum.

Raising prices is not the answer. Black Friday results and Amazon have proven it over and over again. Volume sells. My suggestion is to get the ‘Bean Counters’ out of the picture and turn to those really experts in marketing. Volume is the only way to make money today. People are spending a lot less than 10 years ago which is seen in lower sales figures. Volume sellers have some hope for success. Perhaps Target can find a way to join the E market like Amazon as they really need the competition and have proven their strategy. . I think our society is headed for a stay at home market and order from the internet at lower prices. Because of this approach, Target could reduce the size of it’s stores, open ‘drive in pick’ up order windows or platforms. All this would lower facility operating costs and reduce in house inventories as consumer ‘just in time’ order deliveries deliveries would be used. Just an idea.

Pellegrene found a way to reduce the reliance upon off-price promotion to drive the business. His strategy unified store leadership so that there wasn’t dissonance in the store. It wasn’t just “cheap chic”, it was fresh and new aka innovation across the store. The instore experience surpassed expectations of a discount store so that the high frequency, low involvement categories were bought when they were slightly higher than WMT.

Not sure why they chose someone (to helm their most important executive position) that has not sufficiently proven themselves successfully elsewhere. He had two previous CEO jobs neither of which surpassed the three-year mark–not good. You obviously didn’t clarify—with any extensive background info.—the underlying reasons precipitating his departure from those other two positions. Target doesn’t appear to be moving towards a more ‘strategic’ approach hiring this guy. Do they not pay their CEO’s enough to allow them to demand the best?!

Actually, in my opinion that’s not the problem, Cally. CEOs are paid very very well. The problem is there aren’t very many qualified candidates. Think about it. Target is the third largest retailer in the US, and if you look at the list, there aren’t many who are like Target and whose CEO would like to move on.

This is a direct result of all the mergers and acquisitions of the past 20 years. Retailers are either giant or mid-sized. It’s very hard to find someone qualified to run the giant ones. Size is its own complication.